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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26036368">The Radiance Of Quenchless Fidelity Like A Star</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart'>rthstewart</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Canonically Dead Parent Survived To Raise Their Children, F/M, Force-Sensitive Padmé Amidala, Padmé Amidala Lives, the female characters are the main characters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:40:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,392</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26036368</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Padmé Amidala has things to do.  Dying isn't one of them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>130</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Radiance Of Quenchless Fidelity Like A Star</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosestone/gifts">rosestone</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“River stones remain, while water flows away.”<br/>
-Romanian proverb</p><p>“No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother's love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star.”<br/>
- Edwin Hubbell Chapin:</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p>19 BBY</p><p>“Clear.”</p><p>The soothing blues and greens of the Lake Country and Varykino winked out and, through the viewscreen of the medical suite, the pitted, lifeless rockscape of Polis Massa stretched into darkness.</p><p>
  <em>This isn’t the way it was supposed to have happened. </em>
</p><p>She should have been on Naboo, at the lake villa, with Anakin and her family, the family doctor who had delivered every Naberrie child for 50 years, soothing music, a cool breeze through open windows, the chatter of the waterbirds...</p><p>Padmé choked back a sob as Luke whimpered in the cot next to her. <em>None of that, now. </em>Scolding herself for the poor self-control, she pushed the bitterness away for meditation upon later, when her sensitive infant son was soundly asleep and not so aware of his mother’s every stray mood.</p><p>Soothed by her touch, Luke quieted.</p><p>Leia mewled a soft complaint and Padmé gently shifted her away from her breast. The burp came swiftly with just a bit of spit and her daughter was already dozing by the time she set Leia in her own cot next to her brother. Unlike Luke, Leia was a very pliant infant -- as she herself had been according to her own mother’s reports.</p><p><em>Naberries are easy babies</em>, Mother would say. <em>They only become unruly once they can outrun you. </em>Luke’s fussiness was surely from his father. Maybe he would be more compliant as he grew up.</p><p>Looking down at her son, his mouth twisted into an unexpressed complaint, a vision in the Force flashed in her mind. She saw, in a murky melding of past and future, a blonde boy hurtling down a dusty desert canyon in a cobbled-together racer that was merely a seat strapped to an enormous engine.</p><p>
  <em>Luke? More compliant? No, that wasn’t going to happen.</em>
</p><p>Before it would overwhelm her -- and wake her children -- Padmé pushed aside the sadness of her children never knowing their real families. Shmi was dead but her own parents still lived. Anakin was … gone … but she herself still endured. Someday, perhaps, they might be a family.</p><p>
  <em>All things are possible in the Force.</em>
</p><p>She grazed both her children lightly with a Force touch, though even so slight an application took more effort than it should have -- it was straining a long underused muscle and she needed far more practice. Her children would sleep for the next hour and then Luke would wake, ravenous, and Leia after him.</p><p>Padmé pushed the controls at her fingertips and, noiselessly, the backrest eased her fully upright and the legrest lowered. She’d just delivered twins, vaginally, and was going to enjoy a motorized chair without any guilt at all. With a shift of her weight, the chair swiveled and smoothly glided to the door which slid open to a chilly and empty industrial space.</p><p>She pressed the comlink. “Bail?”</p><p>“Padmé? You are up? We can come…”</p><p>She could hear his voice echoing in the corridor. “No, they’re sleeping. I’ll come to you.”</p><p>Bail’s head popped out from a doorway at the far end of the hall, a warm and welcoming face amidst the sterility.</p><p>He waved and smiled and they met halfway. “Will the med droid scold us for luring you from your bed?”</p><p>“Technically, I’m still in my bed, and it’s moving, not me.”</p><p>Bail gestured her toward the room he had just emerged from.</p><p>“Padmé!” Obi-Wan rose from his seat as she glided in. “How are you feeling?”</p><p>He touched her shoulder and she patted his hand and squeezed it gently. Now that she was alert enough to see and sense him fully, it was <em>definitely </em>better that she had come to them. The grief pouring from Obi-Wan would have induced crying fits in Luke and Leia.</p><p>“I am as well as can be expected. Sore, tired, already sleep-deprived, and still bleeding, but it’s all a normal part of childbirth. I’ll be fine in a few days.”</p><p>“Relieved, we are, for you and your children.”</p><p>“Thank you, Master.”</p><p>Yoda was perched in a chair too tall and too large for him, looking like a doll in a child’s playset. Still, he dominated the utilitarian conference room. Though, it seemed to her the Jedi Master had aged decades in the days since she had last seen him. Obi-Wan looked even worse. They had lost everyone, everything, thousands of friends, perhaps, though the actual numbers of Jedi had been a closely-held secret.</p><p>She quickly scrubbed away with her sleeve the tears that sprang to her eyes. Of the four of them, only Bail could expect any semblance of a normal life going forward. She and the Jedi were looking at years as on-the-run fugitives. And for both Obi-Wan and Yoda especially, there was surely immense -- and wholly justified -- guilt for failing to prevent, or even to perceive, Palpatine’s massive and flawlessly executed deception. Tens of thousands were dead in Palpatine’s manufactured Clone War and the democracy their society had lived under for thousands of years was a ruin of smoking rubble.</p><p>She and Bail and the Delegation had at least perceived and tried to stop Palpatine’s mounting excesses. Jedi dependence upon their own purported powers and foresight had blinded them to what had literally been in the same room with them, <em>for years</em>. They had seen nothing and done nothing. Did Yoda and Obi-Wan yet even realize the full magnitude of this catastrophe or that, without her cooperation, the Jedi Order would die when they did?</p><p>Padmé wheeled up to the table. Whatever their futures were and how they might, eventually, bring down Palpatine and restore a Republic and, perhaps, the Jedi Order, would begin here. “Please, Bail, Obi-Wan, sit. I’ll need to nurse Luke shortly and don’t have much time.” And she would jealousy hoard the little time she did have. “There are many things we have to discuss, the most immediate of which is how to protect my children from Anakin and Palpatine.”</p><p>Obi-Wan eased into the chair stiffly, like an old man. “Anakin is dead, Padmé.” The pain was rolling off him in waves so strong, she winced. “On Mustafar. I killed…”</p><p>“You didn’t. I would know if he died. Anakin is still alive. ”</p><p>Obi-Wan slammed his hand down on the table so hard she felt Luke whimper in his sleep meters away. Obi-Wan had held him at his birth and she realized that he and Luke were already connected in the Force. <em>Will I lose my son so soon, too?</em></p><p>“I cut off his legs!” Obi-Wan cried. His voice broke and, so unguarded, his face contorted into anguished despair. “Anakin was burning up on a lava flow!”</p><p>Yoda injected before she could challenge his assumption. “But leave Vader, you did, when alive he was.”</p><p>Obi-Wan turned to Master Yoda. “I sensed Palpatine approaching. Padmé was hurt, maybe dying. I had to…”</p><p>He trailed off and the enormity of his actions settled over them like a Naboo burial shroud.</p><p><em>You left him to die</em>.</p><p>
  <em>And murdering him would have been the best possible outcome.</em>
</p><p>“You loved him too,” she said into the painful quiet. “You couldn’t kill him. I understand. I couldn’t either.”</p><p>
  <em>If one of us had had the courage, maybe all those children would still be alive at the Temple.</em>
</p><p>Bail spoke the inconceivable aloud. “If Anakin was still alive when you left Mustafar, do you think Palpatine found him?”</p><p>The color drained from Obi-Wan’s countenance and he buried his face in his hands.</p><p>“Possible,” Yoda finally said. “Likely. With the Sith, always two there are.”</p><p>Obi-Wan still could not even speak but he nodded miserably.</p><p>“Palpatine has been cultivating Anakin for a long time,” Padmé told them. “Anakin was obviously part of a long range plan. His arm never hindered him; biomechanics could reconstruct his legs. I can’t see Palpatine giving up on Anakin even if he was in pieces.”</p><p>If he had found Anakin, she was certain Palpatine would reconstruct her husband into a vengeful monster. He would find inspiration in the story in Naboo folklore of the mother who reanimated her dead child with magic and stolen body parts.</p><p>She felt Obi-Wan and Yoda turn their attention to her, fully, in the Force. The focusing image and litany she had used for years rose naturally and automatically to shield her from their probe. <em>I am the rock. Water washes over me but does not move me. I am the rock.</em></p><p>It took a teeth-clenching effort to lower her carefully constructed barriers. She took a deep breath, settled in the Force, stared back at them, and willed the rock away.</p><p>
  <em>Now you see me as I truly am.</em>
</p><p>“You’re Force-sensitive,” Obi-Wan said.</p><p>She knew she'd earned his respect over the years.  She was now sensing admiration from him and, though he hid it well, not a little irritation that she had fooled him. For perhaps the first time, Obi-Wan was seeing her as a near-equal, rather than someone needing protecting. </p><p>“The Force runs in the Naberrie family, though no one has been strong enough in generations to be selected by the Temple. I wasn’t especially diligent in using it until you and Qui-Gon were so easily able to penetrate my disguise and distinguish me from Sabé.”</p><p>She tripped over the mention of her dear friend, her loyal protector, and most cunning agent. Where was Sabé now? Had she survived? She would need to talk to Bail about finding Sabé and, if she was alive,  bringing her into their counsels.</p><p>“After the Trade Federation blockade, and especially once I moved into the Senate, I didn’t want anyone to ever again be able to read me so easily. So I worked at blocking out Force users.” She had become a solid, impenetrable rock that the Force simply washed over.</p><p>“Your gift, in concealment, it is.”</p><p>She wondered at the odd tone in Yoda’s voice and saw Obi-Wan glance at the Master.</p><p>“Yes,” she replied. “Hiding what I was and what I could sense was a discipline I cultivated. It’s been a very useful ability for a politician.”</p><p>“You are very skilled at it, Padmé,” Obi-Wan said. “I had sensed Luke when you were carrying him, of course, but did not know you were having twins until the med tech told us.”</p><p>“It's been very difficult to conceal Leia and took all of the little Force skill I have and most of my energy and attention."</p><p>She sensed Obi-Wan pulling deeply into himself.  Not able to grasp what he was really feeling, Padmé sought help in the Force.</p><p>
  <em>Oh.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He feels betrayed.</em>
</p><p>"Obi-Wan, I hid Leia even from my husband.  Even Anakin did not know."</p><p>She felt that revelation settle upon him with astonishment.  Maybe she had not lost Obi-Wan, too. </p><p>“Saw you did, what we did not.”</p><p>She wanted to rail against the Jedi arrogance that had ignored what no one should have needed the Force to comprehend. She pushed her anger aside. <em>I am still the rock. </em></p><p>“I saw from a different point of view, Master Yoda. I’ve been suspicious of Palpatine since he manipulated me into calling for Valorum’s no confidence vote. His accrual of dictatorial power has been a serious concern for some of us in the Senate.” She wouldn’t go into the other, unsavory intelligence Sabé had collected over the years about Palpatine’s personal vices or that he was likely behind the assassination attempts. “I was very uneasy about his attentions to Anakin. Once I was pregnant, my own options dwindled. I couldn’t hide both of my children but, if everything fell apart, Leia would have a better chance of escaping if no one knew she had ever existed.”</p><p>“Breha and I knew,” Bail said. “Our plan had always been to come here if Padmé had to flee. Or, for Padmé to send Leia with the droids if she could not escape.  Breha and I have been publicizing our plan to adopt a baby girl for months; Leia would come to Alderaan as our daughter.”</p><p>“You were planning an escape and managed to hide it from Anakin <em>and </em>Palpatine?” Obi-Wan exchanged another wary glance at Yoda.</p><p>“Until the very end, I had hoped Anakin would join me.” <em>Until he tried to kill me.</em> She touched her own throat and the bruising that still made swallowing hurt. “Now…” The enormity of the losses and the misery that were to follow would overwhelm her if she dwelt upon them. Her family, her loyal staff, her security team, her former handmaidens, everyone she loved and trusted, had to be deceived, and she had to leave them without ever the chance of saying good-bye.</p><p>She pushed away the despair of the awful present.  <em>All things are possible in the Force.</em></p><p>“With Leia safely hidden on Alderaan, Luke and I will die.”</p><p>She, Bail and Breha had plotted this horrific contingency, even as they hoped it would never have to be executed. With well-applied credits, forging medical records and erasing the memory banks of the med droids were relatively simple -- Artoo and a smuggler’s slicer they’d paid exorbitantly for were already taking care of those details. The Polis Massa droid techs had located a pregnant human female cadaver months ago that could be modified to pass for an embalmed version of her own body. Bail would deliver the corpse to Naboo. She would have to rely heavily upon the sanctity of Naboo burial customs, but with her own hair and faked gene scan and coroner’s report, she could likely be interred without anyone learning the truth. Anyone who did discover the truth could be silenced, one way or another.</p><p>Bail turned to her with a soft, compassionate look. “Are you certain, Padmé? You could…”</p><p>She held up a hand and shook her head. “Please, Bail, don’t. If Anakin or Palpatine suspected that my children lived, they would never stop hunting us. It’s a terrible decision but, for now, the best, even though it’s harder than I had ever imagined.” Her heart had first shattered over Anakin and now over her children. She had nothing else left but to give Luke and Leia the chance for happiness and safety that she did not have.</p><p>
  <em>Trust in the Force. </em>
</p><p>“You and Breha will give Leia everything she deserves and all the love she needs. In a few years, if it’s safer, maybe I can come to Alderaan and our daughter can meet her other mother.”</p><p>She turned to Obi-Wan who was staring moodily out at the blasted moonscape. She’d assumed she would do this but Obi-Wan was the better choice now, especially given the bond he already had with Luke. “You will take Luke to Beru and Owen Lars. He’ll be safe there -- Anakin will never, ever, go to Tatooine again.”</p><p>“I’d once feared I’d be there for a very long time, and so it seems I shall,” Obi-Wan mused sadly. “Of course I will take Luke, and watch over him. But surely you can be with him as well, Padmé. I could protect both of you. And with your concealment skills and a little training, you could hide the three of us." </p><p>There was something pleading in his manner, something so subtle and vulnerable, she doubted Yoda even perceived it. And how could he? This was raw, human need to be with another. Must they both be so lonely and nurse, separately and alone, the deep wounds of Anakin’s betrayal? It was <em>so </em>tempting. To be a family, even in exile. She trusted Obi-Wan, more even than she had trusted Anakin. Maybe…</p><p>
  <em>No. The Force is guiding me and my future is not with Obi-Wan and Luke right now. </em>
</p><p>“I will come to Tatooine, eventually. But I need training first.” And she knew just where to get it. “Where are you going, Master Yoda?”</p><p>She felt Yoda’s gaze settle on her and his attention sharpen.</p><p>“Agree that disappear we all must. Exile I will go.”</p><p><em>Fleeing responsibility, even now. </em> She didn’t like it but she needed him. Her children needed him. If the Jedi were to survive in some, hopefully improved, form at all, their galaxy needed him.</p><p>“I’m going with you, Master Yoda. You can teach me to be a Jedi. Or, as good a Jedi as I can be given the limitations.”</p><p>Yoda rapped his cane on the table. “No! You are too old. You do not have the...”</p><p>“All your students are dead, Master. Is now the time to be picky when there is no one else and I’m right here?”</p><p>The plan began to take shape. “You,” and she pointed at Obi-Wan, “go to Tatooine and teach and protect my son. And you," she pointed at Master Yoda, “are going to train me so I can continue to shield myself from Palpatine and Anakin and learn to protect my daughter. The Jedi Order still lives, but only if Luke and Leia do.”</p>
<hr/><p>11BBY</p><p>“I <em>hate </em>them!”</p><p>She’d been stomping around the gardens long enough for her nanny droid to come looking for her. Leia cried, “Go AWAY!” but it was probably Artoo saying something very mean that made En-nine whirl away making very angry noises.</p><p>“And I’m too big for a nanny!” she called out at the retreating droid.</p><p>Leia tugged again at her braids so they fell out completely and ground her slippers into the wet grass even harder. Once she was finally summoned back into the Palace, she’d have to go change her clothes and probably have a bath before she’d be permitted to attend upon her aunts again. Lessons would be over for the day by then.</p><p>“I hate them.” She really loved her aunts. It was just that, today, she hated them.</p><p>She took another lap around the statue to Padmé Amidala Naberrie. Mother had told her all about the Naboo Queen and Senator -- a girl who was royalty and grew up to do lots of important things. Running around the statue usually made her feel better when she couldn’t stand another minute with her stuffy, perfect aunts who never did anything except tell her all the things she was doing wrong.</p><p>Don’t slump. Don’t swing your feet. Don’t fidget. Don’t scowl. Don’t argue. Don’t smile. Do smile, but just not that way. This is how you greet <em>this </em>person to not start a war but if you greet <em>that </em>person the same way, you could start a war. Don’t go there, you’ll get kidnapped. Don’t talk to that person, you’ll get kidnapped. You’ll get kidnapped no matter what you do.</p><p>So don't do anything, ever. </p><p>Well, except for one thing you <em>always</em> had to do.  </p><p>
  <em>Always do your duty.</em>
</p><p>Duty was <em>so </em>boring.</p><p>Usually, Artoo was fine with her running away from the Palace and didn’t argue with her until it got dark or there was something really important to do, like watching the holovid, <em>The Clone Wars</em>, when it was on. Or he would tell her when she could sneak into Father’s office and read more about beings called Jedi, even if she didn’t understand all the words. She thought Father knew what she was doing because new files would appear sometimes and there were some that, no matter how many times she begged, Artoo refused to open them for her to try to read.</p><p>She had tried to look up what The Force was but there weren’t any records she could find and Artoo wouldn’t help her with that, either. She’d tried to ask Father and Mother about it once but they had looked very worried and shook their heads. It was only right before bedtime, in a whisper, that Father had told her someone would explain it, some day, but for now, Leia must not ask about The Force at all or people would get hurt.</p><p>It was very mysterious but keeping things like that secret because her Father and Mother wanted her to was something she <em>could </em>do. That she was proud to do. Not that her aunts cared.</p><p>Today, instead of waiting until she decided what else she could do to make her aunts even more disappointed in her behavior and appearance, Artoo had his little sensor dish out and was pointing it down a path that she didn’t play on very much. There was a greenhouse in that direction, with vegetables she didn’t like to eat, and some nice houses where the gardeners could choose to live, if they wanted to, rather than in town, outside the Palace’s security perimeter.</p><p>“There’s something there?” she asked Artoo as the droid’s scanner kept whirring. He was beeping in a slow, curious way.</p><p>She felt a little bit excited. Maybe there was something on the path that wasn’t learning more “<em>princess protocol.</em>”</p><p><em>Someone, </em>Artoo replied.</p><p>“Are they dangerous?” Despite what her aunts said about her manners and behavior, Leia actually didn’t want to get kidnapped.</p><p>Artoo beeped too fast for her to follow most of it but she understood, <em>Not to you</em>, well enough.</p><p>
  <em>This way.</em>
</p><p>Artoo rolled eagerly down the path; Leia trotted after him.</p><p>They covered a kilometer fast enough that she was breathing pretty hard and her Princess slippers were so grubby from sliding in the grass and mud, she finally just pulled them and her stockings off so she could go even faster. She’d probably forget where she left them and get another scolding but something that was interesting to Artoo was, she decided, worth the trouble.</p><p>She passed the greenhouse very quickly because she didn’t want a gardener to ask her to come in and taste some slimy vegetable. The path then wove around a big green hedge that provided privacy for the people who lived on the Palace grounds, screening their homes from where they worked during the day. One of the gardeners, a very nice Ithorian named Bigvay, waved at her and she waved back.</p><p>They were hurrying by the cottages the gardeners lived in. Each one was neat and in cheerful colors of green and yellow, with little private plots the gardeners could keep up for their own enjoyment if they wanted and chairs and couches where they would sit in the mornings and evenings. Leia was never very interested in plants but it was a happy place that always made her feel happy when she visited it.</p><p>The last cottage in the row had been empty for as long as she could remember and that was where Artoo led her. There were new flowers lining the path of this cottage that were very thick, in an explosion of white, red, purple, and blue blooms. They smelled nice. She didn’t recognize what they were, though.</p><p>There was a woman in front of the cottage, sitting on the grass, with her legs crossed and her eyes closed. Artoo kept on rolling toward her but Leia didn't follow him. She felt it could be rude and maybe the woman didn’t want company.</p><p>There was something, though. <em>Something. </em></p><p>She squinted, feeling that maybe her eyes weren’t working quite right because of the bright sun. It was like trying to see when you’d been crying and everything was blurry or when you were trying to find your way when snow or rain kept falling in your eyes.</p><p>The woman seemed old. She had very short, gray hair and rough scars across her neck and chin, and her face was very wrinkled and as brown as the coveralls she was wearing. Even sitting down, she seemed big, very broad and strong, more like the guards in the Palace than a lady who grew pretty flowers.</p><p>The woman opened her eyes as Artoo rolled up to her. She smiled and put out a thickly-veined hand to touch the droid.</p><p>
  <em>How did she know Artoo?</em>
</p><p>A Togruta female named Ashla had come to visit Father and Mother a few times -- it never was for very long and Leia understood that this was one of those things like The Force that she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about, even her aunts. Ashla had talked to her about the importance of trying to “quiet your mind” and using that peaceful time to “listen to your feelings.” It all sounded very boring but Leia had realized that when she did what Ashla had said, useful things happened, everything was a lot clearer, and she made smarter decisions.</p><p>So rather than running up and demanding to know how this stranger knew her droid, Leia took a deep breath.</p><p>Something shimmered and for a moment it seemed like the blurry fog in her eyes cleared and the woman she saw wasn’t old, gray, wrinkled, brown or big, but much younger and very pretty and in  coverall that was much too large for her. But then Leia blinked and it was all as it had been before. She didn’t understand what she’d seen -- or not seen.</p><p>“Your eyes can deceive you,” Ashla had said. “Don’t trust them. Listen to your feelings.”</p><p>So, what were her feelings saying? She tried listening.</p><p>
  <em>Good or bad? </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Good. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>But not safe. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Dangerous.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But Artoo was right.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She’s not dangerous to me. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Happy. Very, very happy. Relief. Overflowing with joy, love, acceptance, feelings you couldn’t even describe...</em>
</p><p>“Hello, Leia.”</p><p>Leia started and blinked again. And sniffled so much she had to wipe her running nose and face on her sleeve. Her aunts would have tutted at her like grumpy birds for that. <em>I’m crying? Why am I crying? I’m not sad. I’m really happy.</em></p><p>She sniffed again and her head cleared. “How do you know my name?”</p><p>“A girl in the Royal Palace who should be in lessons and instead is running wild, barefoot, in a white gown covered in mud and grass stains, braids coming apart, and chasing after a droid in the gardens. Who else could it possibly be?"</p><p>Her aunts would have made that sound critical. This woman didn’t do that, though. She sounded nice. Maybe even that she <em>approved </em>of what Leia looked like and what she had been doing. She hadn’t even said “Don’t do that!” when Leia had wiped her runny nose on her sleeve again.</p><p>“I followed Artoo. It’s his fault.”</p><p>Even saying the partial truth felt wrong, and she thought the woman knew it already. “But I was already in the gardens because I got really tired listening to my aunts talk about how to be a princess so I ran away.”</p><p>“Too much etiquette and protocol?”</p><p>Leia rolled her eyes. “It’s really boring.”</p><p>
  <em>And I never do it right.</em>
</p><p>“Sometimes, yes, it is dull, especially when there seems to be no purpose to it. But sometimes there is a purpose to it and if you know what it is, you can make even etiquette and protocol serve <em>your </em>purposes.”</p><p>“How?”</p><p>“Well, it can be useful sometimes for a young woman <em>to appear </em>to be a proper and meek person who knows and follows all the rules so that others underestimate you.” The woman paused and then sounded very smart when she added, “And then you can spring traps on them before they suspect anything and your enemies who underestimated you never see it coming.”</p><p>Leia liked that idea.</p><p>“Also, if you know what proper protocols are in a given situation, when someone doesn’t follow them, that can often tell you many important things.”</p><p>She wasn’t quite sure what that all meant but it sounded more like something her Father or Mother would say than her aunts. “Like what?”</p><p>“Well, what if you have an ally or family member who, under a protocol, always greets you in the same way. And then one day, they don’t. What does that tell you?”</p><p>“Something’s wrong.”</p><p>“Exactly. Maybe they are trying to tell you they need help, or rescuing. Or perhaps it is an imposter who is trying to trick you.”</p><p>Leia agreed that did sound better. But the lessons were still boring. “Who are you?”</p><p>“I am Master Ismat. I arrived a few days ago and have been settling in. I was hoping Artoo would come and find me and perhaps bring you, too.”</p><p>“How do you know Artoo?”</p><p>“We met during the Clone Wars.”</p><p>“So you are a gardener?”</p><p>Master Ismat smiled a little. “I shall be tending to young, growing things, yes.”</p><p>The flowers around them in the cottage’s garden smelled very nice and Leia touched a big, purple bloom. “These are pretty. I don't think I’ve seen them before.”</p><p>“They aren’t native to Alderaan at all, so that’s why they are unfamiliar to you.”</p><p>“Where are they from?”</p><p>“A place called Naboo.”</p><p>“Oh! I know Naboo!” Leia cried. “That’s where Padmé Amidala Naberrie is from! Mother told me all about what a hero she is.”</p><p>Master Ismat looked really happy to hear that. She gestured next to her. “Since you are already dirty, Leia, would you like to sit on the ground with me and we can talk a little more? I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you and would love to get to know you better and maybe you can get to know me, too.”</p><p>Leia tried to scrub her gown but it just smeared the mud more. “I would like to.” It would be nice to talk to someone who seemed to think she was doing some things right. “But I’m going to get scolded for leaving, and for losing my slippers, and if I bother you, I’ll get scolded for that, too.”</p><p>Master Ismat patted the grass. “You are not bothering me at all. I can put in a word for you with your mother and father. I’m sure they won’t mind, especially if you make up for what you missed in your lessons by learning something from me, instead.”</p><p>Leia hiked up her skirt and sat next to Master Ismat. It was nice. Master Ismat wasn’t safe, she could tell that. But she felt very safe with her. “What could you teach me?”</p><p>“Lots of things, though not about Alderaani princess customs. I don't know much about those.  Is that alright with you?”</p><p>Leia giggled.</p><p>“Now, I noticed when you first approached me that you were taking deep breaths and trying to concentrate very hard to try to sense more about me.”</p><p>“Someone showed me how to do it. I thought it was dumb, at first, but if I remember to do it, it really helps.” Leia didn’t mention how doing the exercise had made Master Ismat look blurry to her and all the emotions she had felt that almost made her cry.</p><p>“Ashla taught you that, didn’t she?”</p><p>“Well…” Leia didn’t want to lie but she also knew that Ashla visiting wasn’t something her parents ever talked about.</p><p>Master Ismat smiled, put a hand gently on Leia’s head, and pushed some hair back around her ears. “It’s alright, Leia. You are very wise to say nothing of it to me when you don’t know me very well, yet.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Ashla is a very great friend of mine and I’m glad that you heeded her lessons. You are doing very well with them and we can do more of the things she would teach you, if she could be here."</p><p>Leia wasn't sure exactly what Ashla and now Master Ismat meant for her to learn. But it sounded more important than princess protocol and anything was better than the etiquette that she did so badly and was always criticized for. What Ashla had taught her was useful and could be <em>fun. </em></p><p>"I'd like that a lot, Master Ismat. What should we do first?"</p><p>“Well, as the Princess of Alderaan, you’ve been taught how to be wary of anyone who does not seem right or feels dangerous.”</p><p>Leia nodded. “Flee, hide, fight,” she said, repeating the security lesson.</p><p>“Let’s talk about another way to protect yourself. You can learn to not give away what you’re thinking.”</p><p>Leia was a little disappointed. She was hoping for something more exciting.</p><p>“Maybe I could learn to shoot a blaster? Hiding what I’m thinking doesn’t sound very important.”</p><p>Master Ismat smiled again. “I’m sure you will learn how to handle a blaster appropriately when you are older.” Leaning forward, she whispered, “It’s a secret, but I know an excellent teacher who was once one of Padmé Amidala’s handmaidens.”</p><p>Leia bounced upright from her slouch. “Can I meet her? Would she teach me? I would really like that.”</p><p>Master Ismat didn’t frown at her the way her aunts would. Leia knew that Mother didn’t like blasters at all. “Physical self defense and arms training are a part of protecting yourself that, unfortunately, you will have to learn, but not yet. In the meantime, why don’t you want to learn how to protect your thoughts from others?”</p><p>Leia shrugged. “It sounds like learning more about how to be a good, quiet Princess.”</p><p>“I can see why you might conclude that but I assure you that learning to not give away what you’re thinking is very important. As a leader of Alderaan some day, you will know secrets and you want to keep others from learning them to keep your people safe. Learning to conceal your thoughts and feelings means no one knows what you’re thinking unless you choose to tell them. You also learn how to observe what others are doing, without seeming like you are. Does <em>that </em>sound more interesting?”</p><p>She nodded. What Master Ismat was describing sounded a little like the spies in her adventure stories.</p><p>"And eventually you can use those same skills to help figure out if others are trying to deceive you, or trying to convince you that doing wicked things is really a good thing "</p><p>“Alright.” Leia rested her hands on her knees and took a deep breath, like Ashla had taught her. Again, there seemed to be a shimmer around Master Ismat. She winced a little, like pricking her finger on one of her aunt's sharp hairpins.</p><p>“What is it, Leia? Did you feel something?”</p><p>She nodded. “It felt like you pushed back at me. Like you didn’t want me looking too closely at you.”</p><p>“Very good. That’s exactly what I did. Now, I want you to close your eyes and think about being a rock.”</p><p>Leia didn’t think rocks were very interesting and she wasn’t sure how pretending to be one was going to be helpful. But being here, next to Master Ismat, was much better than being in the Palace. And maybe she would learn something useful.  And Master Ismat liked her and she felt very safe here.</p><p>
  <em>I am a rock.</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>0 BBY</p><p>Alarms were blaring; the <em>Tantive IV </em>shuddered around them and the emergency lights flashed an ominous orange.</p><p>They’d almost made it to Tatooine - they had needed only a few more minutes. But her poor, shattered ship couldn’t outrun a Star Destroyer bent on revenge.</p><p>This <em>couldn’t </em>be the end. It couldn’t. Losing now would render utterly futile the death that had rained down on Scarif. The losses were a tear in her heart and echoing screams in her mind. All those lives snuffed out in the Force. Gone. All the Alderaani counselor guards killed trying to fend off Darth Vader as the <em>Tantive IV  </em>wrenched free of the <em>Profundity</em>; Admiral Raddus and all his crew; all of Rogue One, most of Blue Wing and how many marines and ground troops? How many capital ships and their crews? They’d had to run before even beginning the accounting for the devastating losses and mourning their dead. The Death Star emerging out of hyperspace as a vast, malevolent moon was a nightmare that would never leave her. If they couldn’t get the schematics off the <em>Tantive IV… </em></p><p>“Here,” Ismat said roughly and shoved a blaster pistol at her.</p><p>Leia looked around her into the weapons locker, having to squint in the dimness of the emergency lighting. “Anything heavier in there?”</p><p>“Yes, but not for you. You know you can aim and shoot that one very well so stick with what you’re really good at.”</p><p><em>Satine’s Lament</em> -- that was what her small arms instructor, the mysterious Sabé, had called the blaster model. Ismat had said not to ask Obi-Wan Kenobi about it. And now she’d never get the chance to meet the famous general. <em>I’m going to die in an Imperial interrogation cell and Vader will steal back the plans. We’re doomed. </em>She stifled a hysterical giggle, knowing she was thinking the way Threepio talked.</p><p>Another blast rocked the ship, nearly pitching Ismat to the deck.</p><p>“That was the main reactor.”</p><p>They had maybe an hour on battery and then the gravity and air would start to go. Maybe Vader would sit it out, suffocate them, and then pick through the bodies.</p><p>Leia felt the distortion and a hum in her bones, the hair rose on her neck and arms, and then the whole ship began fluttering like a bird caught in a net. No surprise, really, but Darth Vader was impatient and not going to wait for his catch to obligingly and slowly die when he could just throw more blaster fodder at them in the form of Imperial Stormtroopers and slaughter what was left of the Alderaani guards.</p><p>“<em>Devastator</em>’s tractor beam,” Ismat said tightly, stating the obvious. “We’ve got minutes before we’re boarded.”</p><p>Tucking the blaster into her belt, Leia then checked the pocket of her robe for the reassuring weight of the data file. “I’m going to find Artoo. I hope he can get to an escape pod.”</p><p>“He’s been in worse situations than this,” Ismat replied. “For the opportunity to harass Kenobi again, Artoo would hijack a freighter.”</p><p>These were just more elements of the enigma hinted at or assumed, and never explained. Leia knew never to ask. It wasn’t paternalism but tactics rooted in brutal reality.</p><p>
  <em>Unless you’re positive you can protect what you know from Darth Vader and an interrogation probe droid, it’s better not to know.</em>
</p><p>Ismat strapped the lightweight hold-out blaster pistol she favored into her thigh sheath. Leia had learned that the ELG-3A had been the preferred weapon of Padmé Amidala and her handmaidens. Both Ismat and Sabé used the same model, though modified for more stopping power. It was just another piece in the puzzle that Leia thought she had solved years ago -- another data point like noticing Ismat's affinity for Artoo. That had led to her researching the droid's registration and the not at all surprising discovery that he had originally been commissioned for the Naboo royal fleet before the Clone Wars.</p><p>With Darth Vader preparing to board them, Leia had to bury those conclusions deeply.</p><p>Still, she was curious. “<em>Has </em>Artoo hijacked a ship before?”</p><p>“Not a freighter,” Ismat replied. “That I know of.”</p><p>Which could mean, truly, anything else, from the smallest speeder bike, up to and including an AT-AT or the <em>Devastator </em>now pulling them up into her bay.</p><p>Leia thumbed her comlink. “Artoo, meet me on Deck 1, at the escape pod access tunnel.” She didn’t hear a response but either Artoo would make it, or he wouldn’t. “What are you going to do?”</p><p>“Slow them down.”</p><p>Leia didn’t like the grim resolve that had settled on the woman. “Ismat, please, don’t do anything rash. We can still…”</p><p>“Go. And remember, Vader is here. Be very careful in how you use the Force. Don’t let your barrier down for a moment. If he senses what you are, he’ll tear the ship apart to find you and will never let you go.”</p><p>
  <em>I am a rock.</em>
</p><p>It was a lesson Ismat and eventually Ashla, had drilled into her over the last ten years. The deep, unsettling wrongness she’d sensed in Palpatine was the Dark Side of the Force. Lord Vader had it, too. They were both Sith Lords and if they knew the Princess and Senator of Alderaan was as strong in the Force as the extinct Jedi of old, they would kill her. Or, as Ashla and Ismat warned darkly, something far worse.</p><p>Learning to build an impenetrable wall around her mind had been a lesson that, eventually, could not be taught to her any further. She had to do it to herself -- actively and willingly suppress what Ismat and Ashla said was her own strong, innate Force ability. It might hinder her development of more advanced, Jedi-like skills later, but would protect her from Vader and Palpatine and shield what she knew of the Rebellion from those who would invade her thoughts. It hadn’t been a difficult decision.</p><p>“I know what I’m doing, Leia. This is a reckoning that’s been coming for 20 years. This is what I have to do.”</p><p>Leia wasn’t going to let the fatalism she heard go unchallenged. “But you and I still have things to do, too. Together.”</p><p>Ismat suddenly lunged forward and wrapped her in a fierce hug. “The Force keep you safe, my daughter.”</p><p>Leia nodded into Ismat’s shoulder, letting the fabric of her flightsuit absorb the sudden tears. “I love you. And I’ll be really angry if you leave me here to get out of this on my own.”</p><p>Ismat gave her another squeeze and then a physical nudge and a less gentle shove in the Force. “Go. Save the Rebellion. I’ll save us.”</p><p>“May the Force be with you, Ismat.”</p><p>Her eyes gleamed. “It is.”</p>
<hr/><p>Artoo was waiting for her. She didn’t know where Threepio was and hoped he’d not been caught in any crossfire. Artoo would take care of him.</p><p>Babbling instructions, she uploaded the plans to Artoo’s memory bank. It stuck in her craw to admit her failure to find General Kenobi and bring him to Alderaan but there was no time. Every second reduced Artoo’s chance of escaping. She recorded a quick message, hating herself for the plea that burbled out in her fear and frustration. “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”</p><p>
  <em>You’re <strong>our </strong>only hope.</em>
</p><p>“End recording, Artoo.” She was wondering what to do with the data card in her hand when a little panel popped open. Artoo was always prepared.</p><p>“Thanks, Artoo.” She slid the disk in. “Message for Obi-Wan Kenobi only. Do you know who he is?”</p><p>Artoo’s retort was his most scathing and sarcastic -- the perfectly mimicked sound of a petulant toddler blowing a wet, mocking berry between her lips.</p><p>“Fine!” she snapped. “It’s only the fate of the whole Rebellion resting on this.”</p><p>It had seemed absolute folly to send Artoo off to wander through blaster fire and a platoon of Stormtroopers, find an escape pod, launch himself into space, and crash land with instructions to find <em>one </em>man <em>on an entire planet </em>in a place called the Jundland Wastes. What if there were multiple Jundland Wastes? What if Kenobi had moved? What if he had died? A single droid wandering by himself <em>on an entire planet</em>?</p><p>Despite Leia’s own misgivings, this was the one part of the desperate plan Ismat had the most confidence in. “Artoo will find Kenobi.” Ismat had even grinned. “I <em>really </em>hope I’m there when Obi-Wan sees him again.”</p><p>“Go!” she told the droid. As he was rolling away, she realized her mistake with horror. In the frantic rush, she’d not actually told General Kenobi who she was, or who her father was. Surely he could infer that from the message to go to Alderaan? Should she chase after Artoo and...</p><p>She physically shook herself and took a calming breath. Trust the Force. General Kenobi would understand; he had been a Jedi Knight. He could run a facial recognition scan if necessary. If Artoo could steal a ship, he could tell Obi-Wan Kenobi that she was Princess Leia Organa of the Royal House of Alderaan and that the Rebellion needed his help.</p><p>Hearing the familiar clanking of Stormtrooper armor, she ducked back behind the tanks and squeezed against the bulkhead, hoping they would march passed a storage compartment. </p><p>They didn’t.</p><p>She retreated deeper into the shadows, counted four Stormtroopers, and calculated the odds.</p><p>
  <em>Flee, hide, fight. </em>
</p><p>There was only one way into the compartment so she had to go through them to get out, unless they went by her position and she snuck out behind them. She was in poor light but was wearing a white gown and they might have infrared sensing in their helmets. If she took the shot, she would give away her position and not be able to retreat to a new position for another, clean shot.</p><p>
  <em>Listen to the Force.</em>
</p><p>Faster than a blink or breath, possibilities spun out, like a spider’s silk.</p><p>
  <em>Use the Force to hide.  Wait for the Stormtroopers to pass my position in the compartment. Two shots, in the back, will bring down two of them. I’ll be stunned and disarmed.  They’ll bind my wrists, in front.  They'll have to revive me. When I stand, feign weakness, cripple one with a sweep kick to the back of the vulnerable knee. Leap onto the back of the other before he can turn around and I throttle him without being smashed against a bulkhead.  Get back my blaster and comlink.<br/>
</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Then what? I’m in a ship crawling with Stormtroopers, stuck in the belly of a Star Destroyer.</em>
</p><p>With painful, stunning clarity, the Force gave her a different answer.</p><p>
  <em>Ismat. Find Ismat. You are stronger together. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>The fastest way to Ismat was to be captured.</em>
</p><p>Leia took a breath, settled deeply in the Force, and moved out from her cover. At least she'd take one out.</p><p>“There’s one. Set for stun.”</p><p>She fired.</p>
<hr/><p>The march to deliver her to Lord Vader was ghastly. The Stormtroopers took her up to the command deck and made a point of hustling her past Captain Antilles’s broken body. She steeled herself and would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her weep.</p><p>With the frantic searching still going on, she permitted herself a sliver of relief that Artoo might have made it off the ship. If the Death Star plans had been found, the Stromtroopers would not be nearly so panicked. They knew what happened when Lord Vader was displeased.</p><p>She chanted the litany over and over in her mind.</p><p>
  <em>I am a rock.</em>
</p><p>As they marched, she felt a growing turmoil in the Force and locked her mental armor down tightly. Every step forward brought her closer to a miasma of fury and grief. Her Stormtrooper escort was oblivious. She was certain Ismat was ahead and still alive.  And Darth Vader was with her.  Something agonizing had happened.  And they were marching straight into it.</p><p>
  <em>I am a rock.</em>
</p><p>They turned a corner and the Stormtrooper Commander leading them stopped so suddenly, another ran into him with a clank of armor against armor.</p><p>Smoke swam thickly through the corridor, mingling with smells of ozone, charred durasteel, and burnt flesh. Corpses, both Stormtroopers and her own Alderaani guards, were strewn about, twisted and mangled, in a mass of white, black, blue, and red. Blood splattered across the walls and pooled on the deck, sticky and thick. There were at least a dozen bodies, broken, burned, or hacked to pieces.</p><p>The smoke lifted to reveal Ismat standing in the middle of the carnage. She no longer appeared to be the tall, old, scarred and gnarled woman.  With the obscuring, deceptive Force veil lifted, Ismat was a beautiful, pale, tiny woman with thick, dark hair beginning to gray, a smooth face, and dark eyes. She was swimming in the flightsuit that was fitted for the bulk she only pretended to have.</p><p>Amidst the butchery, Ismat stood, straight and tall, towering over...</p><p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p><p>Darth Vader was kneeling before Ismat, like a supplicant in a religious rite. His body was shaking, his helmeted head resting against her waist and his arms were wrapped about her.</p><p>“You know what you must do,” Ismat said.</p><p>Ismat pulled away from Lord Vader, gently, taking his gloved hands in her own, helping him rise.</p><p>Vader turned and stared at her. Her knees buckled under the intensity of his scrutiny and Leia felt a violent shock of profound recognition -- <em>his </em>shock.</p><p><em>I am a rock. I am rock. </em>Leia chanted it desperately. <em>I am…</em></p><p>The Stormtrooper Commander, deeply confused, stammered, “Lord Vader, we found a prisoner. She…”</p><p>There was an inhuman, terrifying howl of rage and a tidal wave of Force energy swept over them. Her binders dropped to the deck with a clatter and before she could move against her guard, Stormtroopers were flying through the air and smashing against the walls. The sickening sounds of bones crunching and necks snapping echoed in the corridor. The Commander tried to bring his blaster up and lost his hands and then head to a red laser…</p><p>
  <em>A lightsaber?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Darth Vader’s lightsaber.</em>
</p><p>Vader swung about to again consider her, the lightsaber burning hot in his upraised hand.</p><p><em>I am a rock. </em>She felt another powerful wave in the Force and let this one wash over her.</p><p>“No,” she heard Ismat say. “Not now. Not yet.”</p><p>Vader turned back to Ismat. His lightsaber winked out. “Go,” he rasped.</p><p>Ismat hesitated, just for a moment, and opened her mouth to say something.</p><p>“Go!”</p><p>In a swirl of cape, he spun around and stalked off in the direction of the command center.</p><p>Ismat stumbled over what was left of the Stormtrooper Commander and grabbed Leia’s elbow. “We have to leave. Now.”</p><p>Questions -- and answers -- would wait.</p><p>Leia took back from a dead trooper the comlink and blaster they’d taken from her and led Ismat through the tunnels between the decks and hull to the escape pod.</p><p>Ismat wept the whole way, leaving Leia to enter her access code, open the pod, and seal them in.</p><p>“They’ll be monitoring for lifeforms,” she said, her hands on the handle that, if pulled, would forcefully eject them from the <em>Tantive IV</em>. “They’ll probably shoot us as soon as we clear the ship.”</p><p>Ismat shook her head and wiped the tears away. “No. An… Vader knows what we’re doing. He’ll countermand any order. He may be manning the turret gun himself to make sure.”</p><p>
  <em>So we're trusting Darth Vader now?</em>
</p><p>Leia yanked on the handle and the pod popped out of its bay; the force caused by the breaking of the seals pushed them swiftly away from the <em>Tantive IV. </em>She raised a hand in farewell.  <em>I’m sorry, you beautiful lady.  I hope I see you again. </em></p><p>The pod rocked and pitched ominously, but it wasn’t from a laser blast from a gun. She felt her body get heavier; Tatooine’s gravity had found them and would now pull them in. She pulled the seat harness around her as the internal computer switched on.</p><p>“Try to get as close to Mos Eisley as you can,” Ismat said. “Coordinates will be in the nav.”</p><p>Leia nodded, keyed in the request at the console, and the computer spit out a trajectory that would, with some steady piloting and controlled repulsor puffs, get them within about 30 kilometers for a controlled crash on a plateau above the city.</p><p>“Ismat?”</p><p>Grief, anger, and love were all churning within Ismat -- so obviously not her name -- emotions that she had deeply suppressed and hidden from her for years.</p><p>“You think about something for so long and then… well, I suppose it never happens as you expect or wish.” She sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes. “I’m not going to explain what you saw, Leia, not yet.”</p><p>“But Vader? Just letting us go? Why did he turn on his own Stormtroopers?”</p><p><em>Who are you? </em>No, that wasn’t right. Leia knew who Ismat really was. The real question was what was it about Padmé Amidala, long presumed dead, that would make Darth Vader kneel before her, kill his own troops, and then release them?</p><p>The pod shuddered and swayed. She’d need to start steering and wrestling with the tiny repulsors to get them onto something called the Great Mesra Plateau.</p><p>“Palpatine has said for twenty years that Darth Vader killed me.  Vader now realizes that was a lie.  For that deception, the Emperor is now his implacable enemy.”</p><p>Leia gasped. It was incredible. It was, potentially, pivotal to their cause. “So he’s going to bring down Palpatine?”</p><p>Ismat shook her head. “I don’t know what form his rebellion against Palpatine will take. And, of course, there is far more than just Darth Vader to fear -- Palpatine’s warmongering and corruption are endless. But I do not believe that Darth Vader will continue to be the enemy of the Rebellion as he has.”</p><p>“And the Death Star plans? He’s just going to let that go?” <em>Let us go?</em></p><p>“He might not be able to stop Stormtroopers from chasing us down to the planet but he won’t personally pursue us to Tatooine. Twenty years ago, I’d hoped he would come with me. He refused, again, which …”</p><p>Leia was aghast. There was absolutely no possible way the Rebellion could accommodate, or ever trust, Darth Vader. “If you believe he is now Palpatine’s enemy, he would be able to accomplish far more within the Empire as a double agent.”</p><p>“I know.” Ismat’s voice sounded heavy and full of regret.</p><p>Tatooine loomed larger now, wreathed in pale swirls of orange and yellow. It was almost pretty, from space. They were going faster, it was getting hotter, and the pod was shaking violently.</p><p>“Better strap in.” Leia braced herself in her seat and pressed the button which brought the steering controls up from the armrest. At least they wouldn’t be worried about landing in water. She hoped they were not halfway around the planet from the Jundland Wastes.</p><p>“So, we retrieve Artoo and get General Kenobi. We’ll need to hire a freighter to get us to Yavin.  Unless Artoo wants to steal one.”</p><p>"Don't tempt him." Ismat shrugged into her harness and stared out the viewscreen.  "We’ll be able to find a ship in Mos Eisley. Obi-Wan has contacts there.” </p><p>"Are you going to try to barter that flightsuit to pay for our transport?" Leia teased. </p><p>Ismat smacked her forehead.  "I forgot the money again!"</p><p>It was an old joke between them.  Ismat was absolutely shrill about never leaving the Palace without access to currency that would be accepted anywhere. She'd made Leia memorize strings of account numbers and was adamant that no matter how nice it was, a wardrobe <em>was not</em> hard currency. </p><p>Leia concentrated on adjusting their pitch and yaw and, with a tiny, controlled puff of a repulsor, nudged them into a better approach. </p><p>“There is one other thing, Leia.”</p><p>An intense emotion welling from Ismat pricked at her heart and she glanced up from the flight path display.</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“Besides retrieving Artoo and Obi-Wan, there is someone else we will be collecting." </p><p>Leia had the sense of something so important, so significant, she found she was holding her breath waiting for Ismat's next words. </p><p>"Your brother.  He's on Tatooine.”</p><p>“Brother?” she repeated, incredulous. “<em>Here?” </em>Logically she knew she had to have blood relatives somewhere in the galaxy. But she’d never considered them at all. There were hundreds of thousands of Clone Wars orphans.</p><p>Ismat leaned back into her seat, smiling.  Tears glistened in her eyes again but these were from relief, joy, and pride.</p><p>
  <em>What did I do?</em>
</p><p>“Yes, my dear daughter. I never thought I would live to share this with you but you have a twin brother. His name is Luke and, Force willing, the time has come for you to meet.”</p>
<hr/><p>Thanks so much for the excellent prompts Rosestone. I hope you enjoyed this.  I've had the idea of Leia having a secret Jedi protector for over 20 years and was really happy to share it with you.  My thanks to Larm who wanted more of Obi-Wan's beautiful, anguished face and to Syrena_of_the_Lake for the beta.</p><p>Also, there have obviously been a couple of things about ANH that have bothered me since 1977.  It felt really good to fix them here.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity.</p>
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